WHY DU CHILDRENS
TEETH DECAY?
By Daniel H. hress, M. 11.
2.4 NIMALS usually have fine teeth.
Tooth decay is rare among them. A horse
with decayed teeth 1s considered of little
value. We do not expect horses to have
poor teeth. The reason why the horse has
good, sound teeth to advanced age 1s that
he 1s fed on foods which are rich in the
material out of which teeth are formed,
and the fact that he makes use of his teeth
in thoroughly masticating such foods, thus
enabling him to get out of them the bone-
forming element which they contain.
Americans have poor teeth. Dental de-
cay 1s common among them. Possibly not
less than seventy-five per cent of the chil-
dren attending the public schools are af-
flicted with tooth decay. Why is it? Some-
thing is wrong with the food they eat, or
the manner of eating such food. Either
the food is deficient in bone-forming ma-
terials, or through faulty eating they are
unable to get the benefit of the elements
present in such food.
In my travels I have had an adequate
opportunity to make a study of the foods
of various peoples, and their relation to
the prevalence of tooth decay. I have
found that in countries where meat and
white bread form the staple articles of
diet, dental decay prevails. In countries
where meat 1s not freely used, but mushes
and other soft, pasty foods are largely
used, dental decay is equally common.
Australians are possibly the greatest
meat eaters in the world, and in no country
is dental decay more common. America
and England come next, and in these
countries dental decay is also common.
In Scotland where not much meat is con-
sumed, but the children are reared largely
on ‘“‘pap,’—poorly boiled oat meal,—
tooth decay 1s also common.
In homes where meat is freely consumed
and whose members live chiefly on super-
cooked vegetables, boiled mushes, soft
white bread, etc., dental decay in the
children prevails. It is not difficult to see
why this is so.
The foods upon which the horse subsists
contain all the elements needed out of
which to construct not merely strong
muscles but also bones. The steer after
eating the food containing both muscle
and bone-forming, or calcium, materials,
utilizes 1t in the building of the bony
structure and teeth. Muscle-forming ele-
ments are stored up as muscle. Beefsteak
being composed of protein, contains the
muscle-forming element. It is lacking in
Page FOURTEEN
¥ A well-balanced
dvet will do much to
insure perfect teeth,
such as are possessed
by this young maid-
cn.
AAA £22,
srs NWN
the bone-forming
element.
When teeth de-
cay, 1t 1s the
quality of the den-
tal structure that
1s at fault due to
the bone-forming
element being de-
ficient in the food
that is eaten. To
remedy this we
must supply the
elements which
are lacking. Un-
less this is done, dental decay will continue
in spite of the multiplication of dentists,
and the vigorous use of tooth brushes,
tooth pastes, and tooth powders.
Monkeys make no use of tooth pastes
or tooth brushes, and yet they possess re-
markably fine teeth. Dental decay is rare
among them until they are domesticated,
or Americanized. Civilized man may be
benefited by studying the dietetic habits
of these creatures, which so closely re-
semble man.
An early meat diet creates a disrelish
for cereal foods and milk, the physiolog-
ical foods for children, the foods contain-
ing the mineral elements out of which teeth
are constructed. These mineral constitu-
ents are found in sufficient proportion only
in vegetables, fruits, cereals, and milk.
Dr. C. Rose. of Munich, years ago in an
examination of 7,364 pupils at the Fribourg
schools, discovered that the best teeth and
the least tooth decay were found in the
districts which contained hard water, and
im which the soil was rich in lime. In
places where lime poverty existed in the
soil, he discovered there were nearly twice
as many bad teeth among the children.
®
Dr. Neisler states that in a certain dis-
trict where quantities of ground lime were
strewn over feeding places where the soil
was poor in lime, the deer which fed upon
the grass of such fields possessed finer
horns than those which fed in fields that
were not so treated.
Animals are not able to appropriate
ground lime. The vegetable kingdom
serves a useful purpose—it is capable of
dissolving and appropriating these earthy
salts, and organizing and vitalizing them,
for use by animals or man. In districts
where soils and water are poor in lime, the
grains, fruits, and vegetables would neces-
sarily be poor in organized salts, and na-
turally one would expect dental decay to
be more common; because of the absence
of these salts in soil and their consequent
absence in the food. These salts may be
deficient in the food owing to a lack of
earthy salts in the soil, or they may after-
wards have been removed by our modern
process of milling.
The white bread so commonly used 1s
deficient in tooth-forming materials. Dr.
Bunge, a noted physiologist, says: “It is
remarkable that wherever we find a race
of men retaining primitive milling customs,
or living on uncorrupted grain food, we
find their teeth strong and free from de-
cay.” It is estimated that ‘“whole-meal
bread contains 200 per cent more phos-
phates than white bread.” ‘America has
the cleverest dentists,” says Dr. Lauder
Brunton, “because she has the best flour-
mill makers. The better the mills, the
whiter the flour, the poorer the bread, the
worse the teeth, and the better the
dentists.”
It 1s not necessary to depend entirely
upon modern mills for flour. Each family
may obtain a hand-mill at a small cost
with which to grind the flour and cracked
wheat. Those who adopt this plan will be
surprised to find a sweetness in the breads
The WATCHMAN MAGAZINE